A can body making apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,657 issued to J. H. Maytag, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference for all that it discloses. The ram carriage and redraw carriage are each mounted on rollers which move over carriage way strips. Each pair of upper and lower rollers are urged toward each other so as to be in firm contact with the carriage way strip located therebetween. Both the ram and redraw carriages are reciprocated at rates sufficient to form about two hundred cans a minute. The constant reciprocal movement of the ram and redraw carriages and the tight engagement of the rollers on the carriage way strips result in wear which causes misalignment of the ram or of the can blanks by the redraw sleeve. It is understood that this misalignment is small, between about 0.005 and 0.010 of an inch, but such misalignment can result in defective cans.
Grims et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,167, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all that it discloses, describes a can body making apparatus having an elongated ram which is connected to apparatus for producing straight line reciprocating motion and which is supported solely by a liquid bearing during the reciprocation thereof.
The Grims et al. patent also discloses a redraw apparatus for a can body making apparatus wherein the redraw carriage is slidably mounted on a pair of spaced apart support posts for reciprocal movement thereover. The support posts are fixedly mounted on a housing holding can forming and ironing dies.
Other U.S. patents which also describe body maker apparatus, which are all hereby specifically incorporated by reference for all that they disclose, are as follows: 4,614,104 of Straw; 4,578,981 of Nishikawa et al.; 4,173,138 of Main et al.; 3,955,394 of Kaufman et al.; and 3,735,629 of Paramonoff.
In certain fields of technology outside the present field of invention it is known to use magnet assemblies to support a moveable shaft. Magnet assemblies for supporting a moveable shaft are described in the following U.S. Patents which are hereby specifically incorporated by reference for all that is disclosed therein: 4,912,343 of Stuart; 4,892,328 of Kurtzman et al.; 4,831,212 of Matsushita et al.; 4,827,169 of Habermann; 4,795,927 of Morii et al.; 4,642,500 of Higuchi et al.; 4,597,613 of Sudo; 4,583,794 of Takahara et al.; 4,504,098 of Battarel et al.; 4,473,259 of Goldowsky; 4,353,602 of Habermann; 4,180,296 of Habermann; 4,141,604 of Habermann et al.; and 3,877,761 of Boden et al.